Was looking for constructive criticism of the grow other than Make sure the hole you use to pour the water is on YOUR side... This is my 3rd grow: The first and second were was 4 WW dirt/cfl. The first taking an extra 2 months due to light getting into the flowering room. The first was a Charlie brown grown. 20" stretched before flowing... Sad looking. the second i dropped to 12" and they did pretty good but (3plants were 1.4oz) This one is hydro/led/cfl Flowering Room: 4days old: Using white widow clones from the dirt grow. Added mylar around the room. Two 3.5gallon Totes 16wx25lx8t (leaves 1/2in on either side due to the wood covered duct running down the middle of the floor) (Plants start even with the wood base) with 8 holes cut into the tops with a rotozip. (very messy) Holds 4 gallons of water and i use 4" rockwool cubes in the holes. 16" crawlspace insulation holding rods poke through the cubes to ensure they don't drop through the lid later. Each tote has a 12" airstone. Using the UFO 90 LED and 4CFL's (2x150 home depot and 2x40 T5) I use tap water with aquarium water cleanser. I add the nutrients as it says on the bottles and then add 4drops of PH down to get between 5.5 and 6.0 in every gallon. As a security measure i use a different gallon for each tub incase something goes wrong. I bought an HPS 400 and it raised the temperature 15degress within the hour and i couldn't keep it far enough away from plants with the slanted roof ceiling. (it went to craigslist for someone with a better room). I use Silver insulation (home depot) cut into 5"in squares and a cut to the middle to slide around stem and keep the light out of the tub and the algae off the rockwool tops with a little reflection. Clone/Veg Room: 3-4weeks old: 2 Open Totes started with 1" rockwool cubes then put into 4" rockwool above. EarthLED GrowLED 38 5 Watt LED Grow Light - GrowLED 38 - Dual Spectrum (Blue / Red) and CFL 40watt T5. Started with 16 clones : Ended up with 14 (1 died outright 1 grew an inch.) Had to switch to 4" rockwool cubes to be able to put in enough water so as not to go dry in 2 days.. (its hot up there). 85-90 with the fan (no way to get a/c in there) After finding out the pain in the ass wood covered duct was from the AC/Furnace i cut a hole in it for the summer months..... But the Veg room is on its own. Thats why i went Hydro: Figured sitting in water might cool them down a bit. Got a new phone: trying to download the software to add pictures.
First thing i learned reading in here was my CFL's were way too far away from the widows. I was making them stretch. I added 2 more and moved them 5inches closer.
I use T-5 fluorescents and the thing to remember with fluorescents is the bulb needs to be within 6 inches of the plants. The diffusion of lumens and light is much different with an HPS... The whole point (from the growers that I have talked to) is to get those lumens as strong and as close to the plants as possible, which some claim also increases the density of their buds. I kinda agree with what I have seen so far in my own grows, but my experiment isnt complete yet to know for sure. I have seen ppl, with the perfect ventilation ofcourse, get an HPS within 6 inches of their girls. I dont know what results he had, but if its based on the above I would imagine a good yield...
11-12 days into flowering: 5 weeks into Vegging: Flower room: Of course the two biggest were boys: pulled them (these were all clones). about 8 inches of growth. Edit: they were 9-12inches when i put them in there. they were avg 24-28inches this morning and i only have 13inches left of vertical space. The last two attempts weren't even close to this size.. I had some sitting in a pot on top of the wooden duct down the middle of the floor and they were 20inches when done. Veg Room: I was going to put them in the the flowering room at 10-12 inches but they are 3.5 weeks ahead of schedule so i topped them all to get a bit more and slow them down 2 weeks??? (Seemed like a good idea at the time). LST: I took a stalling clone that looked like a Spider with all the low growth branches and decided to LST her after reading 50pages last night about it here: Figured it was lagging behind anyway so i'd give it another 8 weeks. Will take the left side out and around front. take the right out and behind. there is another rockwool underneath it and one broke in half on each side of the 4" buried in Hydroten that came with the Mega-garden i never used. I added what i plan to do with the two stems if they let me. If not i'll grab the next clone and start over. (its all about learning) I'm seriously disorganized as i KNOW i have 2-3 boys clones from the 2 i pulled from a week ago. Going to clone 4 more just in case. Got some Popsicle sticks.
7 more days and things are doing great: The average in the flower room is 28-36inches (WAY bigger than any of the dirt grows. I had to move them around as i was out of vertical room where they were. The last batch was 22inches when done... I moved the veg room to the flower room they look okay topped and are about 12". The LST WW is about 2 days from 2nd spikedown: will take a picture of it then. 4 Wakkiki fem queens sprouted and are just busting off the shells. It about 100 in there today though... its ugly.
Multiple bad times: PH got too low and leaves started to turn. couple gallons of water seems to have stopped the damage. Lamp fell over on two plants and knocked them over: Have them tied up: Jeez. Loose 10" metal clamp lamp kept bumping the 38 5wattLED and it blew everything. replaced it with another LED light and reset the breaker... They look b.e.a.utiful though compared to the last 2 tries. Three times the size and thickness. 5 per 16"wx25"Lx8"H tub would be better than the 7-8... i was basing it on my Charlie brown xmas trees . At 36" tall i can't leave for more than 3 days... I'd like to be able to take off for 5-6 days without worry.
High Sorry to hear that you've been dealing with ph issues. As far as the heat in the veg area, if you can't get the temps down *what I understand from some of the outdoor growers* circulation is everything! So, if you can add more fans/ air circulation, it might help - depending on how hot it gets. Not sure how hot veggers an take it, without keeling over. Budslinger has been growing in an 'attic' space for quite a few years, you might want to check out his grow journal for some ideas on growing with space constraints I'm curious as to why you're using aquarium cleaner in your water? When using tap, if you let it sit overnight, the chlorine will evaporate and it 'should' be ok to use. What kind of nutes are you using? Everything looks great in your last pic update!
I use the aquarium cleaner due to having (four) 4.5gallon tubs in the one room and using approx. 2gallons in the now 43" crazy plants per 3 days... and 1 gallon in the 17" widows 2nd shift that just went in... Then the clones in the smokin hot veg room sit in Two tubs of 2 gallons(2.5"deep) of water total that is gone in 3 days.. So basically a ton of water that i can't just have lay around Aquasafe: Makes tap water safe for fish. Neutalize chlorine, chloramines, and heavy metals harmful to fish. Works in seconds. NEW with bioextract for healthy Clear water. I put in 5 drops of so per gallon of water. Tonight i ran up and down the steps 4 times with my three 1 gallon jugs.
WHY is every one of the very biggest plants a freakin boy? I found out last night my biggest plant was a Hermi... 70%bud and 30%seed mixed in. I ripped it out and put it by itself for the last 4 weeks so i can get the seed results. (trying to get 2foot long 6inch thick roots out of the tub with 5 others and a 12" airstone is a fight.) I'm not sure if i'm upset or happy... (i guess it depends if i got it in time).